VERBSARE OF 3 KINDSACTIVE·PASSIVE& NEUTER—LINDLEY MURRAY
VERBSARE OF 3 KINDSACTIVE·PASSIVE& NEUTER—LINDLEY MURRAY
THE next Part-of-Speech called up before Judge Grammar, to give an account of himself, was Dr. Verb.
He came bustling up with an air of great importance.
“My lord, my name is Verb. I am called Verb becauseverbmeansword, and the verb is the most important word,theword, in fact, in every sentence.”
“Themost important word!” cried Mr. Noun, interrupting him. “My lord, he saysthe verb is the most important word in every sentence! Why, Dr. Verb, you know thatyoucannot give the name of a single thing, for all names are nouns, and belong to me. Theverbthe most important word, indeed, when I have the name of everything!”
“I know that,” answered Dr. Verb, “I know very well that when people want to name a thing they must use a noun. But do you suppose that when they have simply named a thing they have made a sentence? Not a bit of it. To make a sentence you must tell something about the thing that you have named; you must say whether itisorhasordoesanything, as: ‘Iceiscold,’ ‘Pusshasa tail,’ ‘Blackbirdssing.’Is,has,sing, are verbs, and so are all words that speak ofbeing,having, ordoing, and without some such word you cannot make a sentence.”
“You think so, Dr. Verb,” said the Judge, “but I should like it to be proved. Brother Parsing, just call some of the other Parts-of-Speech forward, and let them try to make a sentence without Dr. Verb.”
“I will, my lord,” answered Serjeant Parsing. “Noun, Adjective, and Article, be kind enough to step forward, and each of you give me a word.”
“Sun,” said Mr. Noun.
“Bright,” said Adjective.
“The,” said little Article.
“Very good,” said Serjeant Parsing, “now I will put them together; ‘sun bright the;’ ‘the bright sun;’ ‘the sun bright.’ They do not seem to make quite a proper sentence, my lord, any way.”
“Of course not,” said Dr. Verb, interrupting; “for when you say ‘the bright sun,’ which sounds the best of the three ways, you still have not made a sentence, for you have not said whether the bright sun is shining, or is not shining, or whether you can see it, or what it does. ‘The sun bright’ of course is nonsense; but say the sunisbright, and then you tell a fact about the sun, and you have made a sentence fit to set before the king.”
“You had better try Mr. Noun again, Brother Parsing,” said Judge Grammar. “Perhaps he can give you a more convenient word.”
Serjeant Parsing turned again to Mr. Noun, and asked for another word.
“Hippopotamus,” answered Mr. Noun. Mr. Adjective gavefat.
“Now, little Article, give mea,” said Serjeant Parsing, “and I will put them together. ‘Hippopotamus fat a;’ ‘a fat hippopotamus;’ ‘a hippopotamus fat.’ H’m! it sounds odd.”
“‘A fat hippopotamus’ does not sound wrong,” put in Mr. Noun.
“Not wrong, of course,” answered Dr. Verb. “You may mention a fat hippopotamus, if you like, or any other animal, but unless you tell something about it you have not made a sentence. Say that itis, orhas, ordidsomething, if you want to make a sentence; like ‘a fat hippopotamus is here;’ or ‘a hippopotamus has a fat body;’ or, ‘a hippopotamus ate me up,’ or, ‘swam away,’ or something of that sort. Then you will have some famous sentences, but you will have had to use verbs to make them, foris,has,ate,swam, are all verbs, for they are all words that speak ofbeing,having, ordoing.”
“How can we always find out if a word is a verb?” asked Serjeant Parsing.
“It is sure to be a verb if you can put a littletobefore it,” answered Dr. Verb; “to be,to have,to do,to eat,to drink,to swim,to fly,to speak,to think,to run,to dance,to play,to sing,to sleep,to wake,to laugh,to cry,to call,to fall;” and Dr. Verb stopped, quite out of breath.
“That sounds very easy,” said Serjeant Parsing. “Let me try it with the words that you said were verbs;to is,to has,to ate,to swam.”
“Stop, stop,” cried Dr. Verb; “not like that. You must not puttobefore any part of the verb you like.Isis part of the verbto be,hasis part of the verbto have.”
“Is, part of the verbto be?” said Serjeant Parsing. “What do you mean? why, the two words have not a single letter alike.”
“True; but still they mean the same sort of thing. When a countryman says ‘hebea brave lad,’ he means the same thing as ‘heisa brave lad;’ or when he says, ‘Ibetoo tired,’ he means, ‘Iamtoo tired.’Isandamought to be used according to the laws of Grammar-land instead ofbe, but as they both express something aboutbeingthey are said to be parts of the verbto be. In the same wayhasis part of the verbto have,ateis part of the verbto eat, andswamis part of the verbto swim.”
“That is very learned, I daresay,” said Serjeant Parsing, “but will you kindly tell us, Dr. Verb, how we are to guess thatam, or any other word that has neither abnor anein it, is part of the verbto be?”
“You cannotguess, of course,” retorted Dr. Verb, sharply. “I never said you were to guess. You must use your reason, to find out whether they have the same sort of meaning. Or if you like it better, learn the song that Mr. Pronoun and I have made up, to bring in all the different parts of the verb.”
“A song?” said Judge Grammar, in surprise. “I did not know that you could sing, Dr. Verb; but let us hear your song, by all means.”
“If you will not interrupt me, my lord, I will give you three verses of it,” answered Dr. Verb.
“No, we will not interrupt,” said the Judge.
So Dr. Verb began:—
THE SONG OF THE VERB “TO BE.”
Present Tense.
I amThou artHe isWe areYou areThey arePast Tense.I wasThou wastHe wasWe wereYou wereThey wereFuture Tense.I shall beThou wilt beHe will beWe shall beYou will beThey will be
I amThou artHe isWe areYou areThey are
I amThou artHe is
I am
Thou art
He is
We areYou areThey are
We are
You are
They are
Past Tense.
I wasThou wastHe wasWe wereYou wereThey were
I wasThou wastHe was
I was
Thou wast
He was
We wereYou wereThey were
We were
You were
They were
Future Tense.
I shall beThou wilt beHe will beWe shall beYou will beThey will be
I shall beThou wilt beHe will be
I shall be
Thou wilt be
He will be
We shall beYou will beThey will be
We shall be
You will be
They will be
When he had finished, every one burst out laughing.
“And you call that singing, do you, Dr. Verb?” said the Judge.
“Dr. Syntax, there, calls itconjugating, I believe,” said Dr. Verb; “but I thinksingingis a prettier and easier name for it.”
“But it is not a song at all,” said the Judge, nearly laughing again; “there is no tune in it, and no rhyme.”
“It is the best that Pronoun and I could make alone,”said Dr. Verb, angrily. “But it can be easily made to rhyme if the other Parts-of-Speech will help. Listen.
PRESENT TENSE.
I aman Englishman merry and bold,Thou arta foreigner out in the cold,He isa beggar-man hungry and old;We arenot happy to see you out there,You aretoo snug and warm ever to care,They areat home with us now, I declare.”
I aman Englishman merry and bold,Thou arta foreigner out in the cold,He isa beggar-man hungry and old;We arenot happy to see you out there,You aretoo snug and warm ever to care,They areat home with us now, I declare.”
I aman Englishman merry and bold,Thou arta foreigner out in the cold,He isa beggar-man hungry and old;We arenot happy to see you out there,You aretoo snug and warm ever to care,They areat home with us now, I declare.”
I aman Englishman merry and bold,
Thou arta foreigner out in the cold,
He isa beggar-man hungry and old;
We arenot happy to see you out there,
You aretoo snug and warm ever to care,
They areat home with us now, I declare.”
“That will do,” interrupted the Judge; “we do not want to hear any more to-day. Another day I shall want to know what you mean by calling the versesPresent Tense,Past Tense, andFuture Tense—why you have just six of your words in each tense,—and whether other verbs can beconjugatedin the same way.”
“I can answer at once that they can, my lord,” said Dr. Verb. “Indeed, very few verbs change as much as the verbto be, so that they are all easier toconjugate; as,I have,thou hast,he has;we have,you have,they have.I live,thou livest,he lives;we live,you live,they live.”
“Enough for to-day, Dr. Verb,” interrupted the Judge once more; “we will hear about them next time. Meanwhile, as we shall have further examination of this verbto be, I should like my friends in Schoolroom-shire to make a copy of it, to bring with them. I shall also request them to find out all the verbs in the following verses:—
“Sit to your task,” a father said,“Nor play nor trifle, laugh nor talk,And when your lesson well is read,You all shall have a pleasant walk.”He left the room, the boys sat still,Each gravely bent upon his task,But soon the youngest, little Will,Of fun and nonsense chose to ask.“My ball is lost,” the prattler cried,“Have either of you seen my ball?”“Pray mind your book,” young Charles replied.“Your noisy words disturb us all.”
“Sit to your task,” a father said,“Nor play nor trifle, laugh nor talk,And when your lesson well is read,You all shall have a pleasant walk.”He left the room, the boys sat still,Each gravely bent upon his task,But soon the youngest, little Will,Of fun and nonsense chose to ask.“My ball is lost,” the prattler cried,“Have either of you seen my ball?”“Pray mind your book,” young Charles replied.“Your noisy words disturb us all.”
“Sit to your task,” a father said,“Nor play nor trifle, laugh nor talk,And when your lesson well is read,You all shall have a pleasant walk.”He left the room, the boys sat still,Each gravely bent upon his task,But soon the youngest, little Will,Of fun and nonsense chose to ask.“My ball is lost,” the prattler cried,“Have either of you seen my ball?”“Pray mind your book,” young Charles replied.“Your noisy words disturb us all.”
“Sit to your task,” a father said,
“Nor play nor trifle, laugh nor talk,
And when your lesson well is read,
You all shall have a pleasant walk.”
He left the room, the boys sat still,
Each gravely bent upon his task,
But soon the youngest, little Will,
Of fun and nonsense chose to ask.
“My ball is lost,” the prattler cried,
“Have either of you seen my ball?”
“Pray mind your book,” young Charles replied.
“Your noisy words disturb us all.”
The court then rose.